“[Mark Grey’s work] has far reaching implications for the direction that classical music will take this century.” – Los Angeles Times

A year after the critical success of “The Orphic Moments,” countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo bookends the 2016 opera season with Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo, a co-production with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Cath Brittan, and National Sawdust.

Director Christopher Alden (Olivier Award, Golden Mask Award) takes on Handel’s rarely staged serenata, a 90-minute, spectacular, streamlined, CliffsNotes version of a Handel opera. The production will use innovative video technology to create multi-dimensional visual landscapes and reimagined recitatives by composer and sound designer Mark Grey. Christopher Alden’s production finds parallels between Handel’s 18th century telling of Ovid’s mythological tale and our current Trumpian era defined by by power, class, and the brutality of thwarted desire.

Show Dates

Plot

Set in an extravagant bathing chamber, two servants, Aci and Galatea, prepare for the arrival of the powerful and entitled lord Polifemo (the intimidating Cyclops) as they scrub the tiled floor and fill his bath. The powerless Galatea is traumatized by Polifemo’s overtly sexual aggression as she bathes him. She escapes his clutches, takes his place in the tub and slits her wrists, slowly dying throughout the remainder of the piece.

Polifemo confronts Aci, who asserts himself as the scene descends into bleak violence culminating in his murder. With the two servants dead at his feet, Polifemo is tormented by Ovid’s poignant image of Aci’s blood transformed into a river which flows into the sea, the two lovers eternally united against patriarchal tyranny.

With the use of interactive video, this production leads the audience deep into the darkly Strindbergian and Genet-esque realm of Handel’s taut and timely music drama.

CONNECT

About

National Sawdust (NS), an unparalleled, artist-led, non-profit venue, is a place for exploration and discovery. A place where emerging and established artists can share their music with serious music fans and casual listeners alike.